Models help scientists understand brain cancer (6/27/2008)

Transplanting brain cancer cells directly into similar tissues of immune-deficient mice created a model for the disease that preserved the brain tumor stem cells from which the cancers derived, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Stem Cells.

"We have demonstrated that it looks like the human tumor behaves like and preserves this critical cell population," said Dr. Xiao-Nan Li, assistant professor of pediatrics - hematology and oncology at BCM and Texas Children's Cancer Center, the pediatric program of The Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at BCM.

The transfer of tissue takes place within an hour of surgery on the human patients and occurs in an anatomically matched location, he said.

For example, if the tissue is taken from the human cerebellum, it is transplanted into the mouse cerebellum. Li and his associates believe this helps the tumor cells grow better.

Maintaining supplies of the cancer stem cells from the two kinds of tumors - glioma and medulloblastoma - enables researchers to generate enough of the cells to study them, said Li.

He and his colleagues plan to expand the technique to other kinds of cancers, which should allow them to understand how these stem cells keep cancers going. That should help develop ways to block tumor growth.

"It gives us a model system in which to test new compounds and therapeutics," said Li.

Others who took part in this work include Qin Shu, Kwong Kwok Wong, Jack M. Su, Adekunle M. Adesina, Li Tian Yu, Barbara C. Antalffy, Patricia Baxter, Laszlo Perlaky, Jianhua Yang, Robert C. Dauser, Murali Chintagumpala, Susan M. Blaney and Ching C. Lau, all of BCM and the Texas Children's Cancer Center. Yvonne T.M. Tsang and Wong are affiliated with The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Funding for this work comes from the Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation, Cancer Fighters of Houston and the National Brain Tumor Foundation.

The report can be found at http://stemcells.alphamedpress.org/cgi/reprint/26/6/1414.pdf.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the Baylor College of Medicine

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